October 28, 2007
comments fixed
file under: about this blog
comments have been fixed. order has been restored to all that is holy and good.
for you MT geeks out there, i think the problem was a bloated mt_comments table (9500+ junk comments) which could not be deleted from the MT admin interface (kept getting an error). i manually deleted all those rows and then OPTIMIZED the table in phpMyAdmin. whereas the table was previously 135MB, it dropped to 200K after optimization and deletion of rows. nice and spiffy without the spam.
phew. saved me the hassle of upgrading to MT4.0 (which may be easy for all i know, but usually involves a few migration headaches after the fact).
Posted by docrpm on 10.28.07 at 9:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 12, 2007
comments broken
file under: about this blog
there appears to be a problem with comments in my MT installation. i can't approve them when they are up for moderation, which means they don't show up at the moment. my apologies to the thousands who are desperately trying to give me their feedback, share their hopes, pour out their dreams. or something like that.
anyway, i'll do my best to fix it, thus restoring balance to the universe. this may involve me upgrading to MT4, which will likely be a weeklong undertaking. maybe it's time for me to bite the bullet and shift to Wordpress.
Posted by docrpm on 10.12.07 at 11:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
August 18, 2007
docrpm on flickr
file under: about this blog
it's been a long time coming, but i have finally moved all of my photos to flickr. my rationale for not doing it before is a little murky, i admit...maybe i just felt like it was going to be a lot of work (it was and continues to be) and that my web site was good enough (it wasn't – flickr is way better).
so, visit docrpm at flickr...enjoy the past like you've never seen it before! get the latest and greatest as photos go up in real time, as opposed to months after something happens! now bookmarkable and easily browseable! and, if you act now, you might win a free pony!
Posted by docrpm on 08.18.07 at 5:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 9, 2007
blog upgrade
file under: about this blog
ladies and gentlemen, your captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign. the software for this blog has just been updated, and we're expecting some turbulence. please let the captain know if you hit any particularly rough pockets of air. we thank you for your patience and for occasionally flying with docrpm.
Posted by docrpm on 06.09.07 at 3:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 1, 2007
thanksgiving 2006
file under: about this blog
i have posted a photo gallery for thanksgiving 2006. you can almost smell the turkey. enjoy. ;-)
Posted by docrpm on 01.01.07 at 10:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 26, 2006
layout bug fixed (hopefully)
file under: about this blog
some of you have commented over the years that the layout of this blog was wacked, specifically that vertical height of the page went to infinity and beyond. there were technical reasons for that lame behavior. really. i swear.
i think it's fixed. if anything looks wacky or more stupid than it did before, please let me know. as always, your patience is appreciated.
Posted by docrpm on 11.26.06 at 7:21 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
September 19, 2005
robot love
file under: about this blog
after upgrading my blog software last night, i decided to take a look through my traffic logs to see how docrpm.com had been faring over the past few months. pure vanity, it's true, but anyone who blogs and claims to lack at least some sliver of vanity is a liar, IMNSHO.
at first, things were looking pretty good—about 300 visitors a day. plenty of hits (although it's all relative; i'm not going to be the next Yahoo or anything). and then i started looking at the traffic in a little more depth, and realized that the bulk of the visitors to my site did not appear to be human.
...
while bathing in the love of robots, i was simultaneously saddened by the realization that all of those hits on my web site don't amount to a hill of popularity beans. they could mean something. they could mean nothing. is there a human behind that bot pulling my RSS feed, or have they lost interest and moved on to new syndicated delights? do those googlebots help people find my pearls of web wisdom, or do they index for the void?
i'll never know.
does it matter? if i had no readers at all, just robots crawling my site like zombies, would i keep writing? if i were to say, "Yes", then one might be right to accuse me of the most blatant masturbation (pleasing only myself, for all the world to see). if i were to say, "No," then i would be admitting that i write for others, not for myself. that's not necessarily a bad thing, i suppose, but it seems to lack the purity of the writer who puts pen to paper for the sheer joy of expression.
to be honest, i'm not sure which it is. i suppose i write to communicate my own interpretation of the human experience. that communication doesn't mean much if there's no listener—i'm just screaming into the void. at the same time, what i write here serves as an outlet, a mode of expression i don't find elsewhere. it's a digital diary of sorts, although its public nature keeps me from tawdry emotional exhibitionsim (we can all thank the stars for that). sometimes, i write what i write, and i don't care too much if anyone reads.
digital popularity is illusory, or at the very least, suspect. all it means is that bytes authored by you have passed between your Web server and some other digital ghost. so before getting self–congratulatory about the masses who swarm to our sites, we would be wise to see how many of those in the crowd actually have a pulse.
Posted by docrpm on 09.19.05 at 9:51 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
September 18, 2005
notifications fixed
file under: about this blog
notifications are now back online (as those of you who are already signed up have figured out).
thank you, SixApart. MovableType 3.2 seems to be quite an improvement.
Posted by docrpm on 09.18.05 at 11:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
blog upgrade
file under: about this blog
just upgraded to MovableType 3.2. from the looks of it, this is a pretty major upgrade, so there may be some slight problems ahead. if you notice anything that seems to be amiss (i.e., pages that look all jacked, things that are just plain broken, etc.), please let me know. i really appreciate it.
thanks for your patience and thanks for reading!
Posted by docrpm on 09.18.05 at 9:51 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
July 5, 2005
notifications offline until further notice
file under: about this blog
ok...i give up.
i cannot determine what the problem is with my notifications. it appears to be the same bug that existing prior to MT 3.16, but that was supposedly fixed. i tried to log in to the support forums, but my password failed. then i tried resetting my password, and it failed again (twice more). then i wandered the site looking for information and didn't find what i needed.
i have enjoyed using MT for the past several years, but i think their site is getting a little crufty. in fact, their code is probably getting a little crufty (understandably, and i can't complain because i don't pay for it). sixapart seems to be experiencing some significant growing pains; it will be interesting to see if they make it past the upstart dot.com stage and into a full–fledged business.
in the meantime, until MT 3.2 is released, notifications are permanently offline (unless someone out there knows a fix).
Posted by docrpm on 07.05.05 at 10:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 1, 2005
notification system broken
file under: about this blog
i'm not sure what the problem is, but my notification system seems to be broken. no visible errors, of course, what i like to call the 'black hole syndrome.' you send stuff out and it disappears in the big black hole that is the internet, never to be seen again.
i'll do my best to fix it, but in the meantime, i suggest you get out your favorite RSS readers and pull one of my feeds.
thanks for your patience.
Posted by docrpm on 07.01.05 at 12:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 21, 2005
moblogging doesn't count
file under: about this blog
i have been told by my good friend Chooky that "moblogging doesn't count for squat", which apparently means that to get back in the good graces of my blog readership (such as it is), i will have to start writing thought–provoking, insightful entries.
i will do my best. all i can really promise is words.
Posted by docrpm on 06.21.05 at 8:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 20, 2005
upgrades upgrades upgrades
file under: about this blog
i have made a number of upgrades to the blog, none of which will be visible (or at least, they shouldn't be). this all had to be done after my database got corrupted yesterday when i was trying to do something cool with my new phone (more on that in a later entry).
changes include an upgrade to MT 3.16 and a switch to using MySQL as my database (instead of the default Berkeley DB). the migration seems to have gone ok. fingers crossed.
if you see any problems or stuff missing, please let me know, and thanks for your patience.
Posted by docrpm on 04.20.05 at 4:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 12, 2005
docrpm.com outage
file under: about this blog
docrpm.com experienced a service outage due to the unfortunate fact that i let my domain expire. as a result, the site went down for anywhere between 24-72 hours (depending on your ISP).
in a previous entry (digital dead letters), i announced the demise of my old email address, and mused about the consequences of its death. the temporary death of my domain was one of them — my account profile at my registrar had the old email address as my contact point. so, when they sent me a bunch of emails about the fact that my domain was about to expire, those letters went into the digital ether, the equivalent of the digital dead letter office...oops.
anybody know what this will do to my stature with google's bots?
Posted by docrpm on 01.12.05 at 6:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 8, 2005
movable type link integrity
file under: about this blog
i noticed one small problem with my movable type upgrade: internal link integrity. in other words, links from blog entries to other blog entries got corrupted. this seems to be a consequence of several things, some within my control, some not:
- paths changed to top-level blog directories (my issue)
- entry numbers changed within MT database (not sure who owns this one, since i did delete a few old entries that were in draft form)
- movable type seems to have changed the directory structure for date-based archives between versions 2.x and 3.x (definitely not my issue)
if you find any entries that appear to have issues with internal links, please let me know, and i'll fix them asap. as before, thanks for your patience with the upgrade.
Posted by docrpm on 01.08.05 at 1:33 PM
January 7, 2005
docrpm.com v2.0
file under: about this blog
welcome to the upgraded version of docrpm.com! it's been a long time coming.
new features include the following:
- categories for blog entries
- what i'm reading, watching and listening to at any given time
- completely revamped templates with a totally new look and feel
- other technical stuff that will hopefully let me control comment spam
over the next week or two, there will probably be some bugs or minor issues. let me know if you have any problems, and thanks for your patience. please let me know if you have any problems, especially with comment submission (which i haven't tested thoroughly yet).
NOTE (01.08.05): i have already fixed a number of errors related to links (anchor and otherwise), most notably all the links in the right column. category headers have been fixed, and an image rotation script has been added for the banner.
Posted by docrpm on 01.07.05 at 12:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December 6, 2004
comments disabled
file under: about this blog
the blog spammers have finally gotten me. i got about 2900 comments this weekend on my blog (up from about one comment spam over the last three years).
while i love getting feedback from my readership, this does not include tips on places to go for online gambling, or on how to buy various medicinal supplements that might be to my benefit (even though they're CHEAP!).
as a result, comments have been temporarily disabled until i can upgrade my blog to MT 3.1, and can enable both blacklists and pseudo-Turing tests. you will neither be able to submit comments, or to review previous comments until i have this fixed.
thanks for your patience.
Posted by docrpm on 12.06.04 at 10:18 AM | TrackBack (0)
July 14, 2004
the pathetic dropout blogger that is me
file under: about this blog
it's really lame how little i've been writing lately. actually, i've been writing a lot - it's just not anything people would want to read (proposals, PHP, and MySQL queries - riveting).
i've got little phrases scribbled all over Post-It notes around my office, each of which stands for the kernel of an idea for an entry that i'm going to write someday i swear if i ever finish writing all of this damn code.
here are some titles. i'll preserve them here, since every once in awhile, i reach my Post-It saturation level and just throw everything away. at some point, those little colored squares of paper stuck everywhere start looking like a post-modern monument to my laziness...
forthcoming entries will hopefully include:
- black hole programming
- i used up a pen
- inbox (2313 messages)
- virtuality
Posted by docrpm on 07.14.04 at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 23, 2004
search_rPm
file under: about this blog
search functionality has been added to docrpm.com. it is now possible to search current posts and blog archives. i should have done this two years ago...redesign will happen sometime soon. i know it needs to be done.
thank you for your attention.
Posted by docrpm on 03.23.04 at 12:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 19, 2003
under the hood
file under: about this blog
docrpm.com has undergone a few minor revisions:
- notify me: if you wish to be notified of updates to my blog, you may now enter your email address in the form field in the right column navigation, and click the tiny arrow...you will automatically receive an email notification the next time i noodle.
- trackback: trackback has been implemented on most newer posts. for those of you who are new to trackback (like me, until about 2 hours ago), you can read ben trott's great trackback for beginners on the movable type site. if you're a seasoned pro, you know what to do.
- look and feel: because i was bored, and you probably were, too...
enjoy the new features...a major overhaul is in the works, but it will probably be a few months. too many other projects buzzing around.
NOTE: once i looked under the hood at some of my code, i realized just how old this site is getting. the cruft is pretty bad, as ryan (h) would say...it's embarrassing. my CSS is a total trainwreck, and my HTML is aimed towards that dead-end browser i wrote about before.
Posted by docrpm on 08.19.03 at 11:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
July 10, 2003
upgrade and die
file under: about this blog
a few weeks ago, i upgraded this blog to use Movable Type 2.64. or so i thought. after digging around and doing some other work with 2.64 (entry coming soon), i realized that things were completely fubared.
and so i did the obligatory rtfm. i read the manual. i waded through hundreds of support threads and web sites and Movable Type help forums. and then i gave up. i scrapped it all and re-installed everything from scratch. sometimes this seems to be the only way to kill the boojums.
of course, it also means i stay up until 1:30am fussing with my stupid blog. but hey, now it's syndicated in XML! [the crowd yawns]
Posted by docrpm on 07.10.03 at 1:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 6, 2002
photo frenzy
file under: about this blog
finally, some new series of photos have been posted. those joshua tree photos were pretty old sand at this point, so now there's some stuff from france to check out.
blog entries to recap my adventures will follow shortly. i'll try to keep them brief (so let's see, i was there for 16 days, which is 16 entries, plus my general commentary about the french and their dogs, limited to 5 diatribes and 3 warm reminiscences, plus a little bit of french politics thrown in on the side...just kidding).
look for more photos of non-French subjects in the near future.
Posted by docrpm on 12.06.02 at 2:54 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2002
hiatus
file under: about this blog
the dishes are washed, the plants watered, the newspaper held. i've performed my pre-vacation household ablutions, and can now leave with a clear conscience.
it's time for a two-week hiatus - i'll be gone until oct. 14, and will hopefully have many blog-worthy stories when i return.
a bientot!
Posted by docrpm on 09.26.02 at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2002
knob twiddling
file under: about this blog
the format of the primary landing page has been changed. given that i am prone to diarrhea of the keyboard, i have decided to conserve bandwidth on the splash page by only presenting teasers. this also allows quick perusal to find notes of interest (if any).
if a hue and cry is raised by my thousands of loyal readers to return to the old way of doing things, well, i guess i will...
we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Posted by docrpm on 08.22.02 at 8:58 PM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2001
blog beginnings
file under: about this blog
my first blog entry, something i've been meaning to do for some time. welcome. in many ways, it's funny that it's taken me so long to create a Web presence for myself, given that this is what I ostensibly do for a living. but maybe that's why i don't do it. who wants to come home and do more work, after all?
and so begins what will hopefully be many more blogs.
Posted by docrpm on 05.21.01 at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)
